Indians lose billions of life years to air pollution

DON’T take a deep breath. Air pollution in India is robbing its citizens of an estimated 2.1 billion years of life collectively.

India is home to 13 of the world’s top 20 cities for particulate air pollution, according to the World Health Organization. To gauge its impact, Michael Greenstone at the University of Chicago compared levels of fine particulates across India and used a model to convert those levels into the number of years of life lost. He found 55 per cent of Indians – or 660 million people by the 2011 census – live in areas with dangerous levels of particulates. These people can expect a 3.2 year cut to their lifespans – a total of 2.1 billion years.